Relationship among Salivary Carbonic Anhydrase VI Activity, Buffer capacity and Flow Rate and Dental Caries in Primary Dentition - Longitudinal study in 36 to 72- month-old preschool children

Abstract

Data has shown that the salivary buffering capacity (SBC) and salivary flow rate (SFR) appear to be inversely related to caries prevalence. Additionally, previous studies have shown a negative correlation between the concentration of salivary carbonic anhydrase isoenzyme VI (CA VI) and caries prevalence in children and adults. However, a high concentration of the isoenzyme CA VI in saliva may not necessarily means that all isoenzyme present in the media is active. In addition, there are no reports in the literature of studies that have investigated the relationship between the activity of this isoenzyme, the salivary flow and buffering capacity and caries prevalence as well as the activity of CA VI can be used as predictors of caries risk in preschool children.Thus, this longitudinal study has the following objectives: 1 - Determine the SFR, the SBC and the CA VI isoenzyme activity in the saliva of preschool children with caries and caries-free before and after rinsing with of 20% sucrose solution. 2 - To investigate the relationship between these variables and dental caries. 3 - Check the power of these variables as predictors of risk of dental caries in preschool children after 01 year. For this, three hundred and eighty preschool children aged 36 to 72 months will be divided into two groups: caries-free group (LC group, n = 190) and caries group (Group C, n = 190). Clinical examination will be performed by a calibrated examiner. From each subject, salivary CA VI activity, SFR and plaque pH before and after 5 minutes of mouthrinse with 20% sucrose as well as clinically visible plaque on the maxillary incisors will be determined. The determination of the activity of CA VI will be performed by the zymography method. The results will be submitted to the Wilcoxon test, Mann-Whitney and Spearman correlation (p = 0.005) and chi-square test followed by multiple logistic regression analysis to identify variables that may explain the development of dental caries after 01 year.